


The Play's the thing

by crimsondust



Series: Fragments from the daily lives of Les Amis de l'A B C [10]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Canon Era, Gen, General Shenanigans, Hair Washing, Putting on a Play, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-05
Updated: 2016-09-05
Packaged: 2018-08-13 04:35:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7962664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crimsondust/pseuds/crimsondust
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on a tumblr prompt: Joly and Combeferre, ♖:Having their hair washed by the other? by PilferingApples</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Play's the thing

**Combeferre and Joly**

Combeferre gazed at his reflection in the mirror with a wry expression on his face, ‘The white hair powder is still there.’

‘Would you like me to help you wash it off?’ Joly offered.  

‘I know that’s not what you came for, but would you, dear Joly? Even though this is not exactly in the realm of a medical dilemma but it would be a great help.’

‘It usually comes off after a few washes, it’s not as permanent as hair dyes.’ Joly smiled.

‘I have been trying to get rid of the colour, unsuccessfully. As you can see, white hardly suits me.’ Combeferre’s face was grave which made Joly laugh.

‘So this is the gaiety everyone was involved in, while I was away visiting my sister’s family?’

‘Courfeyrac and Bahorel thought it would be amusing to stage a play Jehan has been writing, just for our small circle of friends. They wanted to do something grand in honour of my passing L’Internat examinations. You know, it is really not a wise idea to let Courfeyrac, Bossuet, Jehan and Bahorel get their heads together. They come up with the most absurd ideas.’ Combeferre was smiling as Joly wrestled with his wet strands of hair in an attempt to remove the powder.  

‘I know how hard you’ve been toiling over these examinations. You nearly had an attack of the nerves from all that stress and I had to intervene. I am truly pleased you had the chance to celebrate.’

‘My dear Joly, the exam itself is diabolical, I would suggest a radical change were I to find myself on the examination board. For months we are buried under notes and books trying to remember detailed sections of the anatomy, the various diseases not to mention their diagnoses. The exam is administered through a viva and one does not know what the examiners will take in their heads to ask and every misfortune imaginable can occur on that day. It is mortifying to fail with the public of Paris watching your humiliation.’

‘Have you decided where you are going to take your internship?’

Combeferre nodded, ‘Necker. I’ve always wanted to work with children.’

‘Perhaps the soap will have some effect,’ Joly said in a hopeful tone applying the product, ‘What was the content of the play?’

‘It was satirical mainly, to mock the fact that a lot of Jehan and Bahorel’s playwright and poet friends have had their works censored out rightly. A few of us were playing exaggerated versions of aristocrats, Louis XVIII and Charles X while the rest were writers or workers. It was a political play with a political message which alas cannot be openly staged in the present circumstances.’

‘I regret not being present to view it. I don’t have to ask what you were playing though.’ Joly smiled as he rinsed his friend’s hair with water and then surveyed the result, ‘Alas! Combeferre, the white colour is still showing prominently in your hair.’

‘Ah!’ Combeferre said calmly gazing in the mirror as Joly laughed, ‘Enjolras will simply have to put up with an old fashioned aristocratic friend, for the time being then.’


End file.
